(Newswire.net — May 24, 2020) — The General Data Protection Regulation act went into effect across the European Union on May 25, with businesses that operate in the EU required to reach compliance by the deadline. More than a month later, however, many European companies still report difficulty complying with the letter of the law.
Only half of companies were compliant with the new laws, now the strongest data protection laws in the world, by the May 25 deadline, according to ITProPortal. A total of 27 percent said they were not compliant, and the remainder said they were not sure if they had met all the requirements to be in compliance by the time the law went into effect.
A joint report by The Core Partnership and ICSA: The Governance Institute found that 78 percent of organizations in the United Kingdom said working to comply with the standards of the GDPR was a huge drain on resources, while 13 percent said the transition was not a significant challenge, and 9 percent said they were unsure.
In order to remain in compliance with the law, The Next Web recommends that companies continually audit their data information and collection methods, delete data they no longer need and establish a timeline for how long particular information should be kept, and evaluate the goals of the GDPR in comparison with company policies and procedures on an ongoing basis.
The United Kingdom passed its own law in concurrence with the GDPR, the full effects of which are slated to go into effect July 23. The Data Protection Act of 2018 will incorporate the standards introduced by the GDPR into UK law, and set out maintenance and enforcement provisions to protect consumer data, according to Lexology.
Companies, including Avant Permanent Cosmetics, report that some of the difficulties they’ve encountered in attempting to meet full compliance with the GDPR and cookies law include struggling to understand the contents of the law, being unsure of what department is responsible for addressing data privacy within a company and obtaining the resources and support required to complete the task.
Some companies hired new staff in order to meet the demands of the GDPR. Many companies have outsourced the project entirely in an effort to meet compliance standards. However, even that has become a snare in companies’ sides, as consultants becoming swamped with work and being unable to respond to individual companies in a timely manner, according to ITProPortal.
The effort to reach compliance has ground business to a halt for some companies, ITProPortal reported.